Thursday, December 20, 2012

It appears an idea I once came up with has gone worldwide.
It’s been getting GLOBAL recognition.
Only, I haven’t received a single ounce of credit for it.

It is now a few weeks later and I have been lying VERY low. Trying to push
emotion aside and act rationally. Wondering how I should approach a situation where
I have been completely dismissed.

If there are lawyers to get involved, that to me is secondary at this very
moment.

Now, this whole story may sound like sour grapes but as a friend of mine
pointed out, it would be impossible for it NOT to.

Lying awake, staring at the ceiling trying to figure out my options, I have
decided that what I want at this moment is for people to hear the truth.

It’s not because I’m bitter. I’m well past that.
It’s not about me speaking up because my ego was bruised.
It’s because, as a self-proclaimed “creative industry advocate”, I believe it’s
my duty.

It’s because as a professional advertising creative director and designer, I
believe in intellectual property rights.
I believe the creator of an idea should be given his proper dues.
I believe business is all about personal integrity.

This is what my parents have instilled in me and this is what the business
world has taught me.
Personal integrity means everything.

With this said, here is the story…

Back in 2008, I was busy creating a bunch of promotions for a few different ad
agencies and I decided to open a unique company. I was going to put advertising
on bald human heads.
I named this company “Bald Media”...

In 2009, “The Canadian Poker Expo” was coming to town and they were looking for
vendors. I thought of a poker pro I had played with and befriended that year (at
the WSOP in Las Vegas) who had recently opened an online, virtual poker training
institute, and I believed my hired head models would be an amazing and unique
way to promote his business at the show.
I decided to pitch him the idea.

I teamed up with an amazingly talented airbrush artist named Josh Andrews (Hi
Josh), and we did a test run for 2 promotional videos.
One to show off the idea…

(If that goes missing, I’ll be sure to provide a screenshot).EDIT May 2013: Of course they had it removed. Here's the screenshot....

The online videos I made for the pitch and my request for bald models on an
employment website got discovered and I ended up making quite a bit of national
press (here is one of them featuring the poker pro’s logo on my head)…

I pushed the concept to a few large corporations in North America and although
there was some interest, the recession in 2009 had hit many marketing budgets
pretty hard and they weren’t ready to spend the additional money. They were all
trimming the fat.
I did however, hookup with one company who wanted me to come out to California
etc. to see if it could fly. With 2
young children at home, I wasn’t about to start flying across the country to
launch a start-up in another city during one of the worst economies in my
lifetime.

That year came and went, and I have been busy since then with my work as a
freelance creative director.
I put the idea into my back pocket.

The Canadian Website Domain Registry decided to change a whole bunch of their
rules (and I was getting annoying non-stop reminders from them about it) so I eventually
let the website go (quite recently in fact, I’m guessing at the beginning of
this year).
The truth is that I really didn’t feel I needed the website.
Corporations were not online SEEKING such a promotion.

I believe that a promotion of this nature needs to be kept unique. You need the
right client, at the right moment and the right event to make it successful.
Unleashing it on the masses for anybody and everybody just cheapens the medium
and makes it quickly boring. “Oh look, there’s another guy with a logo on his
head… Next!”

I wasn’t looking to have people walk around the city with
ads on their head for “Joe’s air conditioning repair”. That’s not the clientele
I wanted.
Also, a brand can be affected by the actions of the models that are hired.
How the models act in public would be completely my responsibility.
I made sure to screen each and every single model/candidate on my roster to see
if they could represent a major brand in a respectable fashion.

I did however, have the right opportunity present itself when a journalist called
to bring in my service for his charity fundraiser...

To make matters worse (and what has TRULY horrified me) is that he is taking
FULL CREDIT for coming up with the idea.

I don’t need to post any links to these claims. You can easily find them
yourself.
Just start with his company website.

Recently, some angry designers etc. that follow my blog (and who remember the
press I got way back) have begun commenting on his videos etc. and brought some
attention to the origin of HIS great idea...

Their comments have been quickly and continuously erased from his YouTube
videos and I'm guessing this is the reason why the question of where the idea originated are now being skipped.
Like, for example, on live Australian television…

Now, I must admit, the video is well done.
He also took the PR to a MUCH higher level than I did.
This work is actually commendable.

But after being in the advertising industry for over 20 years this is what I
see…

I see a guy who walks into a creative director’s office with a portfolio full
of ads that aren’t his.

I see a guy who strolls up to the podium to receive an award for somebody
else’s idea and then pats himself on the back for it.

You are allowed to make money as a competitor. As they say, imitation is
flattery.
But as a creative professional, it’s the idea that is respected.
Sometimes, it doesn’t even matter if the idea flies. That’s just a bonus.
That’s why some award shows have a “Best idea never produced” category.

As an art director, if I win an award in this business and a copywriter helped to
come up with the concept, their name ALSO goes on the award. So does the account
person who helped sell it. So does the client who actually had the balls to buy
it.

It’s only right.
It’s only fair.

That’s what people with integrity do.
They give people their proper dues.

I’m glad I got that off my chest.

And I will from this night forward sleep soundly because I believe deep down in
the back of my mind that karma is an absolute bitch.

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About Me

Ronnie Lebow graduated from the Ontario College of Art
in 1992 and worked for almost a decade as an Art Director
and Copywriter at some of Canada's largest advertising
agencies, creating everything from logos to television
commercials for the most prestigious of clients.
In 2001, he opened LEBOW, taking on a wide range of
clientele that were looking for large-agency experience
without the red tape that is generally associated with an
advertising agency or design studio.
Since venturing out on his own, Ronnie has won a slew of
international awards in both advertising and design, and
has also received recognition for his photography and
illustration work. Ronnie has been interviewed and named
one of Canada’s leading creatives on a global industry
website, and was the subject in an episode of “Career Moves”,
a nationwide television special about advertising and design.
He is also an accomplished writer with several
articles appearing in industry magazines, on websites worldwide, and his work has been included in a University’s curriculum.